Diabetes Prevention and Awareness with Spira Care’s Diabetes Care Specialists

Considered to be one of the fastest growing chronic diseases in the world, diabetes can lead to heart disease, stroke, amputation, kidney disease, blindness, and death. Nearly one in two Americans has diabetes or prediabetes.

• More than 38 million children and adults have diabetes in the U.S., amounting to about one in every 10 people.
• One in five people don’t know if they have diabetes.
• In the past 20 years, the number of adults diagnosed with diabetes has more than doubled.

“As we become more sedentary, have more weight gain and higher stress levels, these factors are likely contributing to the rise in those numbers,” said Spira Care Diabetes Care Specialist Amy Kapple.

“In the past, we typically diagnosed type 2 diabetes in people late, after the illness had progressed, and significant symptoms developed,” said Spira Care Diabetes Care Specialist Janice Monachino. “Now, we are better able to catch it early, sometimes before symptoms are noticeable, which helps manage the illness more effectively long term.”

Defining Diabetes

According to Janice and Amy, here are the most common types of diabetes:

Type 1 diabetes

• Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, a condition in which the body attacks its own healthy cells (like cells that produce insulin) by mistake. People with type 1 diabetes must take insulin every day to live normal, healthy lives.
• Insulin is a hormone that enables blood glucose (blood sugar) to travel to and enter your body’s cells to be used as energy. If you have diabetes, glucose from your blood can’t enter your cells, so it builds up in your bloodstream. This causes high blood glucose (hyperglycemia), which eventually can lead to diabetes-related complications if not treated.
• Scientists are still working on figuring out how to prevent type 1 diabetes, which is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, but can be diagnosed at any age. Only about five to 10 percent of people with diabetes have type 1.

Type 2 diabetes

• With type 2 diabetes, your body doesn’t use insulin properly, which is called insulin resistance, and your blood sugar is persistently higher than normal.
• It develops over many years and is usually diagnosed in adults but is increasing in young people.
• You may not notice any symptoms, so it’s important to get your blood sugar testedif you’re at risk.
• If detected early and managed proactively, type 2 diabetes can go into remission, meaning the individual maintains a normal range of blood sugar levels without medication for at least three months. Well-controlled diabetes requires ongoing monitoring, but can allow an individual to live a normal, symptom-free life.

Gestational

• Gestational diabetes develops in pregnant women, affecting up to nine percent of pregnancies in the U.S. each year.
• If you have gestational diabetes, your doctor can recommend dietary changes and more frequent checkups to make sure you and your baby are healthy.
• Gestational diabetes usually goes away after your baby is born. However, it can increase your risk for type 2 diabetes later in life.

Prediabetes

• In the United States, more than 1 in 3 American adults has prediabetes.
• With prediabetes, blood sugar levels are persistently higher than normal, but not high enough for a type 2 diabetes diagnosis.
• Prediabetes raises yourrisk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
• Prediabetes is reversable, and if caught early, a type 2 diabetes diagnosis can be avoided.

“Prediabetes is tricky because you don’t feel it or see it, but a lot of patients will come in and say they can barely make it through work in the afternoon,” said Kapple. “Carbs are making them super tired after they eat, and a lot of things are creeping up like weight gain, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and overall inflammation.”

Amy and Janice noted that less common types of diabetes are Latent Autoimmune Diabetes (LADA) and Maturity-Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY).

Signs of Diabetes

The following are common symptoms of diabetes:

• Urinating often
• Feeling very thirsty, even after drinking water
• Feeling very hungry, even after eating
• Extreme fatigue
• Blurry vision
• Cuts/bruises that are slow to heal
• Weight loss, even though you are eating more (type 1)
• Tingling, pain, or numbness in the hands/feet (type 2)

Diabetes Prevention

The Spira Care Diabetes Care Specialists share their top five ways to prevent type 2 diabetes:

1. Meal planning: Balance carbohydrates with protein and fiber. Also, try to avoid sugary beverages, like soda or sweet tea.
2. Exercise: The goal is 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each week. It’s okay to start by exercising for 15 minutes two or three times a week.
3. Weight control: Work toward a healthy weight, even a little bit at a time. Losing weight can make a big difference.
4. Good sleep: Make sure to get six to eight hours of sleep each night.
5. Manage stress: Stress can have physiological impacts, like increasing blood pressure. Managing stress helps lower blood sugar levels.

“When I study diabetes prevention programs, I notice the most successful age group for those are retirees,” said Monachino. “We can still teach an old dog new tricks. It’s still reversable, as long as you understand the cause of it.”

Diabetes Care Management at Spira Care

Janice Monachino, RN, CDCES and Amy Kapple, RDN, LD, CDCES form the Diabetes Care Specialists team at Spira Care. As certified healthcare professionals with more than 40 combined years of experience, Janice and Amy understand the challenges of living with diabetes or prediabetes. They can:

• Design a diabetes prevention plan.
• Help you understand your diabetes or prediabetes diagnosis.
• Partner with you and your primary care provider to develop a care plan.
• Support you with related health concerns throughout every phase of life.

“If you have a Blue KC plan with exclusive access to Spira Care, we are here for you,” said Kapple. “We see patients by provider referral. When a patient receives a new diabetes diagnosis, it can be overwhelming. Patients can go through a grieving process. They might experience anger, denial, and sadness. Challenges are numerous. We’re just here to support them.”

“That’s what we’re here for, wherever they are in their journey,” said Monachino. “We’re not here to judge them. We are here to help them and to be a partner for them. This is a life-long process. I’m really thinking about what their body will be like in 30 to 40 years. I want to introduce them to a healthier self during the time they reach their retirement and help make sure diabetes hasn’t stopped them from reaching their potential.”

Sources: American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, CDC